Stats and stories about the Celtics play on Christmas Day throughout the years.
Christmas Day is a great time to spend time with loved ones, open presents, and watch the NBA all day long. The NBA on Christmas is a tradition unlike any other in the basketball world and it is seen as a great honor to have your team play one of these games with the whole world watching.
This season will mark the 38th time in franchise history the Boston Celtics will be playing on Christmas Day since the tradition began in 1947. Let’s stroll down memory lane and relive some of the most memorable moments the Celtics have given us on Christmas.
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The Celtics have a team-record of 17-20 on Christmas Day games but have found more success in recent years — in their last 10 matchups, they have a record of 6-4.
The first game the Boston Celtics ever played on Christmas was on December 25th, 1948 in an 80-77 loss to the Philadelphia Warriors. This loss would start a six-year losing streak on Christmas Day until 1954 when Boston got their first win in an 108-99 victory over the Milwaukee Hawks. Bob Cousy led the way for Boston with 35 points alongside 23 points from Ed Macauley and Bill Sharman.
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Something interesting to note is that in franchise history, the Celtics have only played in 6 home games on Christmas. After the game in 1964, the Celtics wouldn’t have another home Christmas game until 2017, 53 years later. Why the long stoppage?
The rumors behind the lack of Christmas games in the Garden were around Celtics head coach Red Auerbach doing the charitable thing and refused to make team staffers and stadium employees work on Christmas Day or because the NBA was too afraid to put a game in Boston due to the harsh New England weather.
Both of the stories were proven false, as Chris Forsberg details in a 2017 ESPN article. Nobody really knows the origins as to why they never played Christmas Day games in Boston. NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg asked Celtics team president Rich Gotham to try and get a concrete answer and Gotham’s response was that the Garden just wasn’t available for use during Christmas time.
Gotham explained that it was the “Disney on Ice” program that normally had the Garden during this time. They would begin dropping off materials for the show around Christmas Eve so their show could start on December 26th. The Celtics started playing games at home again thanks to former Celtics GM Danny Ainge who in 2016, urged the Celtics front office to give fans the gift of Christmas Day basketball in TD Garden for the next season.
Since 2017, the Celtics have played in three more Christmas games at TD Garden with this year’s matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers on the parquet.
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Playing on Christmas Day is seen as a badge of honor to players around the league but that also comes with sacrificing spending time with family. In 1985, the Celtics ran into a situation with star Kevin McHale about this scenario when they were scheduled to play the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The team as a whole was not thrilled about having to play on Christmas Day after not playing the past four seasons on December 25th and McHale was especially unhappy, voicing his frustrations about not wanting to miss out on time with his family. He decided not to travel with the team, instead opening presents at home and then taking a separate flight to New York on Christmas morning. Some of McHale’s teammates were angered by this and so was the NBA. They fined him for missing the team flight.
McHale would have 29 points, but it was a disastrous game for the Celtics. After they built up a 25-point lead mid-way through the third quarter, they choked it away as the Knicks were able to come all the way back and win 113-104 in double overtime.
This was the worst loss the 1985 Celtics would have all season, but it didn’t seem to bother them very much. They would go on to have a record of 46-8 to end the regular season, win the championship, and go down as one of the greatest teams ever assembled.
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Shifting back to the modern day, I would like to go over some of my personal favorite memories watching the Celtics on Christmas Day.
The first game that comes to my mind is Christmas 2016 when the Boston Celtics faced off against the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden. Both teams wore Christmas themed jerseys for the last time ever as Adidas’ jersey contract with the NBA would be taken over by Nike, who did not carry on the tradition.
The Knicks wore a blue jersey with cursive orange font while the Celtics wore these beautiful green jerseys with white cursive font that said “Boston.” To this day, I think these are the best jerseys the Celtics have ever worn and I will stand by that forever.
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The jerseys were not the only great part about this game. Both teams played a back-and-forth affair with tons of highlights. The funniest one in retrospect was when Al Horford dunked on future teammate Kristaps Porzingis and had the entire Celtics bench hyped.
The Celtics would have a nine-point lead with around 2 minutes to go in the game until the Knicks rattled off an 11-2 run in a minute to tie the game. The Celtics were not deterred. Marcus Smart would hit the game winning three with 47 seconds remaining and Avery Bradley forced a turnover on Carmelo Anthony to seal the win for Boston. Isaiah Thomas led the way for the Celtics with 27 points and it was enough to overcome Carmelo Anthony’s 29-point performance.
The next notable game was in 2018 against the 76ers. The 2018-19 Celtics had a lot of issues with drama on and off the court with Kyrie Irving at the forefront. Although Celtics fans have sour memories of Kyrie now, during the 2018 Christmas Day game, he put on a show that electrified the TD Garden crowd.
Kyrie Irving would go off for 40 points and 10 rebounds on 17-33 shooting and 5-10 from three, with only one free throw. Irving would hit some of the biggest shots of his Celtics career, starting with a fadeaway jumper over Jimmy Butler to tie the game with under 20 seconds remaining to force overtime. Then he would take over, he splashed a three to give the Celtics a 1-point lead with two minutes to go. J.J. Reddick missed a three for the 76ers on the next possession, Jayson Tatum threw it ahead to Kyrie who would proceed to pull up from 30 feet and swish the dagger three for a Celtics victory.
Kyrie might not ever be remembered positively for some Celtics fans, but that one Christmas should be remembered as the peak of his time in Boston.
The final notable game was in 2022 against the Milwaukee Bucks. The Jays combined for 70 points as Boston blew out Milwaukee 139-118.
Jayson Tatum dropped 41 points, the second most ever by a Celtic on Christmas Day behind only Tommy Heinson’s 45-point performance in 1961. Tatum also had one of the best highlights of his career with a vicious poster dunk on Giannis. The game was close until the Celtics started to pull away in the third quarter, but I will always remember this game for the insane performance Tatum put on display.
In conclusion, the Celtics have a long history when it comes to playing on Christmas Day with tons of memorable moments and with the 2024 Christmas game upon us, we should be in store for another chapter to this long-storied tradition.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!
This is where the buckets roll. Philly meets the defending champion Celtics on Christmas Day
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